What are the market projections for electricity from PV systems?
- Global capacity 2018 vs 2050
- Top three 2018
- Share PV of total electricity
- Cost drop per doubling capcity
- Global 2018 is 100 GW and 2050 is 500 GW
- China 2018 is 45 GW, India 11.8 GW and US 10.6 GW
- PV 2.14% of total electricity generation
- learning rate of 20%
What are the three types of solar irradiation?
- Direct Normal Irradiation
- Diffuse Horizontal Irradiation
- Global Horizontal Irradiation
What is the max GHI in the Netherlands?
980 - 1055 W/m2
Describe the proces that happens within a PV panel? This is also called the PV operating principle.
- Sunlight creates a free moving electron in the silicon
- When adding pn-junction (positive-negative), the electron is pushed in one direction
- The metal contacts on the top and bottom take the electron out of the cell
- The electron can now do work
What is the material most PV panels are made from?
Silicon (Si), made from ‘sand’ SiO2
How is a PV panel manufactured? (6 fases, 5 steps)
1) Sand (SiO2) > reduction in furnace
2) Polysilicon (98% pure Si) > crystallization
3) Silicon crystal (99.99% pure Si) > sawing
4) Thin slices of silicon (160 micrometer) > cell processing
5) Solar PV Cell > Module processing
6) Solar PV module
What is the price range of a 300W panel? (spot market, installer, large customer and residential customer)
- Spot market 100 euro
- Installer 150 euro
- large customer 200 euro
- residential customer 250 euro
What are the two types of PV integration in an urban environment?
- On the roof > building added PV (BAPV)
- In the roof > building integrated PV (BIPV)
What is the perfect aim and tilt of a panel in the Netherlands? What yield can you expect?
- South
- Tilt 32.5 degrees
- Yield of > 90%
What is the max power of a residential PV system. And what is the max power of a solar power plant?
- residential < 30 kW
- solar power plant 1.5 GW
What is the buildup of most PV systems?
- Modules are placed in a string
- Each string has his own fuse
- String are placed in an array
- Arrays connected to inverter (DC to AC)
- AC power from inverter connected to public grid
What are the two functions of inverters?
1) DC to AC
2) sets the voltage in the PV array
What are the three basic types of solar panels?
1) Monocrystalline
2) Polycrystalline
3) Thin Film
What is the typical capacity, efficiency and lifetime of a PV panel?
- Capacity 200 - 380 WP
- Efficiency 15 - 24 %
- Lifetime 25 years
What are two types of PV system monitoring?
- complicated, measures everything. Mostly offered by inverter companies.
- simple, measures only AC power
What are the 6 calculation steps of the potential solar power?
1) collect rooftop data (tilt, orientation, available area)
2) Calculate the potential installed capacity
3) Collect historical solar irradiance data
4) Use solar models to calculate the plan of array irradiance
5) Model the output and performance of PV modules and inverters
6) Conduct further studies (finance, combine with EV)
What are the six functions of BIPV?
- Solar electricity: Its primary function. PV converts solar light into electricity
- Sound protection: Creating a satisfying internal environment by excluding noise from outdoor.
- Thermal Control: Heat transmittance can be actively or passively managed. Actively can result in higher performance of the PV-system, but is also more expensive
- Weather Proofing: The structure needs to be strong enough to deal with wind, rain, ice etc, but should also make sure that the internal structure is protected enough.
- Shade and light: Insulation can be managed actively, by developing a system which can control/assist the internal climate or passively by improvement of IV- and IR-light transmittance. However this will later be discussed more extensively.
- Design Structural:“increase in architectural appearance” is in many cases related to the image related to sustainability of the firm. Therefore the appearance is a form of marketing.
What are the two motivations to use BIPV?
- Logistic reasons: In densely populated area (think about large urban areas or crowded countries like for example the Netherlands), the lack of available spatial area is a strong limitation on the installation of conventional PV. BiPV tackles these limitations and provides the opportunity to use more space in urban areas. Furthermore, the building might become independent of the electricity infrastructure when electricity production exceeds the electricity consumption, but in many of these cases a form of electricity storage is necessary to meet the electricity demands and certain moments.
- Regulatory reasons are based on governmental legislation. For example, the European Commission states that all newly built buildings by the end of 2020 will be near Zero-Energy Buildings. As example for the Netherlands: The Dutch government has announced in 2016 that it’s obligated by law that all offices will at least have ‘energielabel C’ on a scale from A to G (A is excellent).
How can the shading losses in total electricity output of this system be minimised?
- Bypass diode in the solar panels: The bypass diode withdraws the shaded part of the solar panel from the electric circuit. This way the yield of the illuminated cells is not affected by the higher resistance in the shaded part.
- String configuration: Configuring different strings of panels such that simultaneously shaded panels are connected in the same string, reduces the losses of mismatching currents due to differently irradiated modules.
- Micro inverters: Every module has its own inverter, this way a shaded module doesn’t affect the other modules.
- Optimizers: Every module has a dedicated device that optimises its performance, this way a shaded module does not affect the other modules.
